Suicide bomb kills 12 Afghan police on bus

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

KABUL, Oct 2 (Reuters) A suicide bomber killed 12 Afghan police on a bus in Kabul today, a police official said, the second such attack in the capital in four days.

The front of the bus was blown apart by the blast at the start of the morning rush hour on a narrow road in a shopping district in the city's western outskirts.

Shop windows were shattered and blood and body parts strewn on the ground. A police officer at the scene said women were among the dead and he had picked up the bodies of a number of children.

''The report we have indicates that so far 12 police have been killed and 15 wounded,'' said the official who declined to be named.

A Taliban spokesman said the radical Islamic movement, which is fighting to topple the government and drive Western troops out of Afghanistan, was behind the attack.

''They are criminals. They don't have any respect for humanity,'' Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi told reporters at the site. ''Islam is totally against suicide. Islam is against the killing of human beings like this ... We can expect more attacks.'' The Kabul head of criminal investigations said police were still investigating casualty figures.

''I can't say anything at the moment, there are civilian casualties but we don't know for sure how many,'' General Ali Shah Paktiawal told Reuters.

Ambulances rushed to the scene which was cordoned off by police.

''I was walking down the road when I saw a big explosion. I saw about 20 to 25 people dead on the bus,'' said witness Ajmal Shinwari.

At the hospital, Gul Haidar tried to get news of his nephew who was missing after the blast. His sister-in-law, a policewoman, and her child were killed in the attack.

Government workers often take their children with them to their offices and leave them in ministry creches.

Twenty-eight soldiers and two civilians were killed in a similar attack on a bus on Saturday.

REUTERS SZ HS1259

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